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Sep 11, 2016

Nine years ago an emergency doc performed “hairy” surgery in space

Dangerous fixes made by Scott Parazynski in 2007 show no signs of wear or tear.

Eric Berger

Enlarge/ Over Astronaut Kate Rubins' left shoulder, the repairs done by Scott Parazynski in 2007 still look great.

NASA

It made for one of the most dramatic
moments in the history of the International Space Station. Dangling at
the end of a 50-foot boom, attached to the station's robotic arm,
astronaut Scott Parazynski could barely reach his target at the distant
edge of the orbiting laboratory—a torn solar array.

Stakes were high in late 2007. NASA had just
recovered from the space shuttle Columbia tragedy, and its primary focus
was completing construction of the space station. Astronauts had added a
new 110-foot solar array in preparation for the expansion, and the
additional power was needed for new European and Japanese modules. But a
2.5-foot tear had formed in the array, likely due to a stray guide
wire. Absent a repair, mission managers had two options: leave the array
as is and use the available power, or jettison it. The problem with the
first solution was that the tear might spread, making the array
unusable. That could have meant no expansion for the station, which at
the time was a only fraction of its finished size.

The cobbled-together plan called for Scott
Parazynski, an emergency physician by trade and one of the agency's most
experienced spacewalkers, to use a wire-and-tape contraption he and his
crew mates built on orbit. The physician would then thread the
cufflink-like device through reinforced holes on the panels, allowing
them to take the strain of a fully extended solar array.

Scott Parazynski dangles over a solar array in need of repair.

NASA

Sending Parazynski so far from the station's
pressurized modules would be dangerous. If something went wrong, he
would be far from assistance. Moreover, there was no guarantee the
improvisation would work. The station's program manager at the time,
Mike Suffredini, said it was one of the station's hairiest moments.

Parazynski and fellow spacewalker Doug
Wheelock stepped outside the ISS on the morning of Nov. 3, 2007. Once
the station's robotic arm had Parazysnki in position, he began his
surgery: snipping away at the guide wire and inserting the cufflinks one
by one. He had to be careful to avoid bolts, whose sharp edges could
tear his suit, as well as the solar cells and other parts of the array,
which could produce any number of electrical hazards.

Finally, after seven hours, the repair was
complete, and the robotic arm took Parazysnki back to where Wheelock had
been directing him from the base of array. They watched as astronauts
inside the station slowly extended the array and locked it in place. The
patch job held.

As a physician accustomed to emergency repairs
in the operating room, Parazynski exulted in the opportunity to
essentially suture the damaged array together. "That was my biggest day
on the job, ever," he recalled in 2011. "I felt like my entire career led up to that one single moment."

At the time the station was scheduled to
remain operational until 2015, and engineers were confident the repair
would hold up until then. It's now 2016, and a photo taken during a spacewalk early in September offers a stunning view of Parazynski's handiwork. After seeing the photo, he tweeted, "Yes, our repairs are still under warranty."

Parazynski has since left NASA. He now works
at the University of Arizona as an explorer and technology innovator.
However, the space station's commander at the time, Peggy Whitson, will soon
launch back to the orbiting laboratory for her third mission. And
Parazynski's repairs to the solar array are being counted on to last
until at least 2024 and possibly 2029.